14 DAY TRIAL // Jill Murray, the director of narrative design working at the Quebec studio of Ubisoft, says that she wants to include more real and attractive female characters in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, focusing on their capacity to do good, but also on their flaws.
The executive tells GamesIndustry.biz that many games are trying to portray all their female characters in a positive light, which can end up making them less interesting than their male counterparts.
Murray states, “Trying to feature positive female characters’ is probably a mistake. When you demand that characters be paragons of positivity, that’s when you get the feeling of ‘trying’ and no one likes to play ‘trying’. Players want to connect with characters that offer something juicy and real.”
She says that titles like Gone Home and Mass Effect have managed to find the right balance between feminine qualities and conflict.
Murray adds, “the everywoman, the underachiever, the ordinary person moved to respond to tragedy, the woman who excels at one thing but the rest of her life is a mess, and so on. The messy stuff is what makes real people relatable and memorable, whether or not they’re good role models.”
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is the only title in the franchise to feature a female protagonist, Aveline de Grandpre.
The game was launched on the Vita initially and is now coming to the PlayStation Network with High Definition graphics.
Aveline also has a number of exclusive missions included in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag on Sony-made devices.
The most recent release in the series is focused on Edward Kenway, a pirate that travels across the Caribbean, fighting battles on the sea and exploring the unique features of cities like Havana, Kingston, and Nassau.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be out on current-gen consoles on October 29.